Healthcare orders are requests placed by healthcare providers for, e.g., procedures, medications, laboratory tests, evaluations, treatments, and nursing tasks to be done for a patient. In a non-electronic healthcare order system, orders from different categories in one healthcare plan (such as medications, labs, diagnostic tests, and nursing orders) are generally documented on a single piece of paper. A healthcare plan includes multiple orders for treatment for a particular problem or ailment. For example, a healthcare plan for a cancer patient may include multiple medication orders and laboratory testing orders. Once these orders are reviewed by a healthcare provider, the necessary orders for different categories are forwarded to the correct location to be completed or filled. For example, if one order includes a medication, a medication paper order may be sent to the pharmacy to be filled. If one of the orders in the healthcare plan is for a laboratory test, a paper laboratory requisition form may be sent to the laboratory. In the paper healthcare ordering system, it is typically possible to go back to the original paper order set containing all of the orders for the healthcare plan. An example of a healthcare plan or procedure would be a chemotherapy protocol that includes multiple orders for medications, laboratory tests, and diagnostic tests.
In an electronic healthcare order environment, if a set of orders is placed for a healthcare plan, once the orders have been reviewed they are electronically dispersed to the appropriate location, such as the pharmacy or laboratory application. U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/022,540, 11/020,489, and 11/021,509 (each of which is incorporated herein by reference) describe methods and systems for creating and maintaining associations among the orders in a healthcare plan in a computerized environment such that the associations may be accessed and viewed after one or more of the orders is distributed to the proper application to be filled.
Often times, an order (or set of orders) will set forth a healthcare plan having components which span multiple phases. For instance, a healthcare plan for a chemotherapy protocol may specify that a particular medication is to be given in a specified dosage on three separate days, e.g., Day 1, Day 8, and Day 15. In this instance, each day may be viewed as a separate phase. Phases, however, are not limited to units of time. In simple terms, a phase is merely a plan within a plan and, accordingly, may be a unit of time, a diagnostic grouping, or any other sub-plan within a healthcare plan.
In an electronic healthcare order environment, when an order (or set of orders) spans multiple phases, each component of each phase appears to a user as a separate order. More importantly, each component of each phase appears to the electronic environment as a separate order. This means that each component of each phase must be entered into the electronic system separately and any modification to a particular component must be entered for that component in each of the phases in which it may appear. For instance, in the above chemotherapy protocol example, if it is desired to modify the dosage of the medication that is to be given to the patient on each of Days 1, 8, and 15, such modification must be separately entered for each of the three phases. Such duplicate entering is not only inefficient but increases the possibility of human error.
Accordingly, a system and method for associating components which span multiple phases of a healthcare plan would be desirable. Additionally, a system and method for modifying a component such that any modification thereto is also applied to all components associated therewith would be advantageous. Further, it would be advantageous if such modifications could be entered one time instead of once for each phase to which they apply.